Mott The Hoople - Mad Shadows

  

I was around 10 when I started to buy music under my own steam. My pocket money only stretched to Singles, but with Glam Rock at the helm, singles were joyous. A year or so later, family visits and special occasions allowed me to save up and buy albums. That opened up a whole new world to me. Approaching 40 minutes of music from the band. A whole lot of things that few had heard. You felt special, privileged and it became a mission to know every word on every song.

One of my early purchases was Mott The Hoople's The Hoople album and that was glamtastic. I didn't know Alice was about a prostitute, not that I'd have known what one was and the wonder of that album led me backwards to the band's masterpiece that is Mott and the All The Young Dudes album. Then I went further back and that was when the surprises started.

Living in an industrial town meant that finding anything that wasn't "popular" became nigh on impossible to find. But one Market day, I looked at the records on the music stall and there under the M's was Mad Shadows. I couldn't wait to get it home and imagine my disbelief that this was the same band that I had come to adore. It all appeared Heavy Rock music, surely there weren't two bands called Mott The Hoople?

But I'd made my purchase and wouldn't have enough for another for another month, so I listened and listened and the album's majesty took hold. It wasn't the chaotic noise that I first thought, the album just hooked you. It was dark and brooding and learning more over the years, I found out reasons why. Guy Stevens production, if you can call it that, played with the band's heads. Ian Hunter realised what he was after and so his songs reflected that. 

This was Mott The Hoople's second album and before it, Hunter was the band outsider. He had joined via a music press advert and Guy Stevens recommendation that he would be a decent stopgap. All the rest of the band were friends and the leader was really Mick Ralphs. So for the new guy to be taking over the main songwriting and the majority of the vocals seemed a bit bewildering. Ralphs wrote only 2 of the 7 songs, including the magnificent Thunderbuck Ram, Hunter dominated the album.

The driving rock of No Wheels To Ride, which still fights with Alice and The Journey as my favourite Mott song, opened up a whole new world to me. The gospel-esque I Can Feel showed another side to the band and the hypnotic When My Mind's Gone was a meandering hypnotic affair. Then there is the rock out of Walkin' With A Mountain which became a live staple well into Hunter's solo career, a song that explains the Dylan meets The Rolling Stones band comparisons.

The follow up, Wildlife went in completely the opposite direction, a Ralphs dominated album, very American Country Rock in its vibe. Although Hunter wrote two of his best ballads for the album, Waterlow and Original Mixed Up Kid, the guitars were turned down until the Live Keep A Knockin' medley that demonstrated what a band Mott The Hoople were. The Island era ended with a Punk preview, six years early in Brain Capers.

Listening to those four albums, you can understand what confused listeners. What type of band were they? Bowie and CBS were to call and the rest is history. Incidentally that year had a further revelation for me in the organised cacophony that is Wizzard's Brew. Heaven help the young kids who bought it expecting an album of See My Baby Jives.

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